Rockland County’s legislature and a representative from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hosted a virtual panel Wednesday raising concerns about the level of PFAS contamination in the county’s drinking water.
The meeting follows calls from Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and 17th District Congressman Mondaire Jones, both Democrats, for the EPA to focus on PFAS contamination in Rockland County and help the community improve health and better understand environmental risks.
According to official data, more than 300,000 Rockland residents may have been exposed to elevated levels of PFAS, which were discovered in late 2020. PFAS chemicals are commonly found in fire-fighting foams and non-stick cookware and have been linked to certain types of cancer and other harmful effects. Communities throughout the WAMC listening area have been dealing with PFAS contamination.
Robert Hayes is the clean water director for environmental lawyers in New York. He says PFAS belongs to a family of around 9,000 very persistent chemicals, of which only 29 can currently be detected.
“They can last for decades or more in water or soil and other environmental media,” said Hayes. “And that means they can move through the food chain and expose generations of humans and other organisms to contamination.”
According to Hayes, PFAS chemicals can also build up in the human body.
“They can last in your body for years after exposure, and levels in your body can build up over time,” said Hayes. “The longer you are exposed to them, the more exposed you are to them.”
And Hayes says it affects almost every system in the human body.
“The endocrine system, the digestive system, the reproductive system – on and on and on,” said Hayes.
Hayes says there is no known safe level of PFAS exposure and says the public health goal for maximum PFAS contamination levels should be zero.
During the summer, New York State introduced MCLs for three chemicals in drinking water. For PFOA and PFOS, the MCL are each 10 parts per trillion. Rocklands water was tested for PFOA at 19 parts per trillion. Rockland’s water system includes dozens of wells and several reservoirs that help provide water.
Suez’s water system serves most of the Rockland residents. Carol Walczyk, Vice President of Water Quality and Compliance at Suez, told the panel that PFOA can come from a number of products.
“It’s toothpaste, it’s floss, it’s ski wax. It’s – so many things we use every day contain PFAS, ”said Walczyk. “They were introduced in these commercial products in the 1950s, and sometime in the early 2000s, manufacturers began voluntarily phasing out PFOA and PFOS. It’s a voluntary exit. That said, there are still many products that contain PFOA and PFOS. “
According to Walczyk, New York standards are stricter than most states because they don’t calculate a moving annual average, but instead measure the PFAS values using a sample.
“Without this kind of offsetting effect on the running annual average, it’s almost guaranteed that most water systems will eventually be exceeded because those things are everywhere and the limit is very, very low,” said Walczyk.
Suez said a new test technology would allow the company to test all 29 PFAS connections. The quarterly PFAS test results are published online. Suez says it is conducting a well and site assessment to determine where additional treatment is needed.
There is no current national drinking water standard for PFAS. In 2015, the EPA began researching “occurrence data” – how common the chemical is in soil and water. In 2016, the health recommendation level for PFOS and PFOA was set at 70 parts per trillion.
Alyssa Arcaya is Acting Head of Drinking Water and Municipal in the EPA’s Infrastructure division. It manages the waters of New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Arcaya says it isn’t necessarily unsafe even if the levels in Rockland exceed recommendations.
“The EPA’s national PFOA and PFOS health recommendations are currently a combined 70 ppt compared to 10 ppt in New York for each of these substances, so we’re better protected here in New York than in many other states in that country,” said Arcaya said.
According to Arcaya, the Ministry of Health is the authority for drinking water standards.
“Since there are currently no federal drinking water standards for PFOA or PFOS, it makes sense for New York, which has its own standards, to be at the forefront here,” Arcaya said. “In fact, the EPA would not have the authority to enforce state standards.”
According to Arcaya, the EPA is instead playing a national research role to improve understanding of the risks of PFAS to humans and the environment – and to study how various technologies could remove PFAS from drinking water.
The panel moderator and environmental geochemist Dr. Steven Chillrund from Columbia University asked whether wastewater from sewage treatment plants in front of well fields could contribute to high PFAS levels.
Sean Mahar, chief of staff for the State Department of Environmental Conservation, says the data does not support the claim.
“We don’t see any direct correlation between the possible effects of sewage on the detections we’re currently seeing in the wells,” Mahar said. “But obviously, as we build this testing capacity and continue to reduce our oversight and authority over these compounds, it will advance science and understanding.”
According to Arcaya, the EPA is working on a drinking water ordinance and intends to publish a proposal for public comment by early 2023.
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